The Crossways BLOG TOUR – Book Review + Giveaway!

Remember the cover reveal I did for this book a few weeks ago? Well, the book is FINALLY HERE!!! Yay!! So. Without further adieu, let us take a look at what it’s about (if you don’t know already).

About the Book

“M’lady, it has been fairly well confirmed that the Redona was hidden away by the merfolk at the conclusion of the Great War instead of destroyed as was commanded. My brother has confirmed to me Joseph’s belief that it was concealed at the Crossways.”

Toarna pressed her fingertips together in thought. “It must be recovered and destroyed as was at first intended.”

Emily, Allan, Jill, and Joey have been reunited with their long lost ancestors. But with that reunion comes the true beginning of their quest: free the rightful king of Calhortz so that he may be restored to his throne. The Redona, the only object that can free him from his long imprisonment, is rumored to be concealed in The Crossways, a mountain across the sea which cannot be entered.

A slave since birth, Adriel’s resentment and hatred towards the strytes only grows as his family is continually ripped from him. He longs for the freedom the Time Captives are prophesied to bring, but he doubts their existence, just as he doubts God’s love. Circumstances in Calhortz are so dire. How could they ever improve?

Who can enter The Crossways? Will the king ever be freed? Or will the slaves of Calhortz lose all hope of freedom before it is even offered to them?

The Crossways is the second book of the Time Captives trilogy, a tale of faith, family, fantasy, and a fight for truth and freedom.

And about the author! Morgan! She’s a wonderful author that I get to be a fan of, and a wonderful person that I am blessed to call my friend. Tomorrow, I’ll be interviewing her, but for today, you get a little snippet of who she is and what she’s about. 😀

About the Author

Morgan Elizabeth Huneke is a homeschool graduate who lives in Georgia. She has enjoyed creating characters and writing stories since early childhood. Her other interests include reading, playing the piano and violin, and politics. She is the author of Across the Stars and The Experiment.

(Maybe I should start with telling you all that my review for the first book, Creighton Hill, is here on Goodreads, I just haven’t gotten around to posting it on my blog yet.)

Alright. I wouldn’t consider myself a terrible reader, I just got sidetracked with some other books (like, four) while reading this one. And I can’t focus well on more than one book at one time, so I pushed it aside.

The more I read of The Crossways, the more I was interested and wanted to keep reading it. It was great.

I finally finished it the day after the release, and two days before my review was supposed to be up…AND COME ON PEOPLE, I WANT MORE TIME CAPTIVES!

Seriously! It was so great! I just had to let myself get into it first.

The Crossways follows a few storylines. We have the Time Captives (the kids who are stuck as kids in the land of Calhortea), Adriel (he’s a slave and gladiator, and just so great!), and Eleanor (flashbacks to her life; she’s a Time Captive and a heart-wrenching 3-D character). Emily’s character got the most POV (point-of-view) out of all the rest of the Hubbards.

There’s something called the Redona at The Crossways. The Redona is an object that will be able to free the true king of Calhortz, who’s trapped on an island, but it’s virtually impossible to get to and then retrieve, and if anyone with royal blood tries to leave, they die. The journey of the book (because every good book just HAS to have a journey) isn’t just to get to The Crossways, or even get inside. It’s also made up of the personal journeys of Adriel, and Emily, and Eleanor. It’s just so good.

Pros:

-The Gospel Message! It’s a children’s book, but the Gospel message is very clear and still enjoyable of a book. It would be a great tool for middle-grade kids to 1) understand their faith more 2) see how faith works out in their lives and 3) make the most out of what they’ve been given, because they can know that God is with them through it all.

-The Plot! It’s so fresh and new and unique and exciting and terrifying! It’s awesome. Portal fantasy is a favorite genre of mine.

-The worldbuilding! Such fun. So cool. I still need to understand the map better, because I’m terrible at comprehending those kinds of things, but what we saw of Calhortea was GREAT.

-DRAGONS. Well, one dragon. She’s a really good dragon at that. (Hehehe.)

-Gladiators. It’s a sad concept, but has always intrigued me.

-Boats and pirates. Because. They’re cool. Boats are great and pirates are evil, so it evens out.

-Ships. (Yes, both meanings of the word…I just had to do that.) The Andaron is really cool, and for those of you who know what the term ‘shipping’ refers to when referring to characters, Weathersbard is heartbreaking and Jill/Adriel is adorable but they’re kids. So…PLEASE MORGAN, MAKE JILL COME BACK TO CALHORTEA WHEN SHE’S GROWN UP AND COME MARRY ADRIEL. Havilan/Adriana will be a great thing to look forward to. 😀

Cons:

-There were a ton of characters, so some of them didn’t have time to be properly developed. For example, I thought Draewin was a girl until I heard Havilan call him brother…oops. I’m sure it was just me, so whatever. It’s okay. The things I needed to understand were covered, there just seemed to be a few too many characters to really get to know well. And some of the Time Captives got a little lost in my head, because there are fourteen. Obviously you can’t follow them all.

That is okay, though. No book can be 100% perfect, and I forgive!

There weren’t really any other cons, so yaaaayyyyyy!

This book totally topped the first one, even though that one was really awesome.

Are you convinced to read it yet? Go buy it! And the first one, too. It’s really great, and I promise you’ll enjoy it.

AND A GIVEAWAY! Who doesn’t like winning free stuff? (I don’t know, but I love it!) So be sure to enter, pleasepleaseplease do.

Giveaway

Join in the excitement of Time Captives and enter to win a special prize! The first prize winner will receive a signed copy of The Crossways. The second prize winner will receive an eCopy of The Crossways in the eBook format of his/her choice. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.